Military detonates IED abandoned at Maguindanao junk shop

COTABATO CITY, Philippines— The military on Monday detonated a powerful improvised explosive device at a junk shop Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao.

Maj. Gen. Rey Ardo, chief of the 6th Infantry Division, said the IED, fashioned from two 81 mm mortar with battery and a timer, was hidden inside a sack filled with charcoal and left at RP Metal Shop, along the national highway in Barangay Awang.

The junk shop is near the compound of the Mindanao Textile Corp. It is also about 50 meters from a police detachment in Barangay Tamontaka and a kilometer away from the 6th ID headquarters.

Authorities said alert civilians became suspicious of the sack when it was unloaded from a passenger jeep by unidentified men, who hurriedly left at about 6:30 a.m.

Col. Prudencio Asto, chief of the 6th ID public affairs office, said an Army bomb disposal team detonated because it was too dangerous to defuse the powerful explosive.
Following the incident, Ardo ordered all military units in the city, Maguindanao and North Cotabato to strictly enforce checkpoints.